Thursday, August 07, 2008

Obedience to Writing

Obedience is discipline!

To be a writer you need obedience to the craft. You can not write one day, feel like you’ve accomplished all that you’re going to then not write for another week or month. Obedience is a way of organizing a set time for your writing. Whether it is honing the craft, writing free-style or working on a short story or a novel.

Obedience is the act of obeying orders. These are orders that YOU will give yourself. "Today I must write 500 words." The more you submit to this obedient behavior the more flexible you will be when the time comes to write. The more words you will write and the more fulfilled you will become.

Brushing off writing as a hobby will only make a truly talented passionate writer become irritable and unfulfilled in the destiny that is set before him/her. We as writers are a passionate group who, when writing, feel as if life has a new and deeper meaning. We become artists through the painting of our words.

Now you need to pat yourself on the back when you accomplish something good in your writing. When we hear praise of others it boosts our moral and we know that we must move forward because whether this is going anyplace or not, you being a writer is all that you’ve ever tasted on the tip of your pen.

Now harsh criticism will come knocking at your door and you need to be prepared for it. Writers have skin thicker than rawhide! When someone tells us our work isn’t right, we go back to the drawing board and fix it. If we need help in fixing our mistake, we will learn where the mistake is and hone the element that is causing us problems.

Say you’re a great speller but lousy at punctuation. STUDY punctuation! Learn what a comma is used for and when to use punctuation marks. Suppose you can’t get the POV down, first person, second person, third person omniscient etc. etc. Work on finding the cure to where it is that you need help.

Discipline yourself to learning! Become obedient to your master (writing) and just like any good dog, the rewards are endless.

Prioritize your options. Make a list of what you want to accomplish in say a week-month-or year. Prove to yourself (and no one else) that you CAN be obedient to an art that has embraced you on cold nights, covered you when it rained, and cuddled you like a child. Writing does that for you, the least you can do for IT is EMBRACE it BACK!